BlackBerry's KEYone Black Edition will hit markets across Europe, Middle East and Asia

With this announcement, TCL Communication’s BlackBerry Mobile brand is responding to BlackBerry smartphone fans around the world who have asked for additional styling and performance options within the BlackBerry KEYone lineup.

The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition will go on-sale beginning in Q3 2017 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia starting at AED 2,299 and SAR 2,299 respectively. It will also be available in other markets later this year.

“The global release of the BlackBerry KEYone from TCL Communication has far exceeded our expectations, with our re-imagined BlackBerry smartphone now available in more than 30 countries around the world; and more coming later this year,” Alain Lejeune, Global General Manager for TCL

Communication’s BlackBerry Mobile brand. “We’re excited to follow our initial launch with the all-new BlacKBerry KEYone Black Edition that delivers on our promise to expand our BlackBerry smartphone portfolio in 2017, while laying the groundwork for another addition to our lineup later this year.”

“The demand and excitement for the BlackBerry KEYone across the globe has been fantastic,” said Alex Thurber, senior vice president and general manager of Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry. “We congratulate TCL Communications for bringing to market their second device so quickly, and know it will provide the performance and trusted security people expect from the BlackBerry brand.”

Design

Carrying the same distinct hardware design as the original BlackBerry KEYone, the all-new Black Edition comes with a matte black finished added to the device’s aluminum frame offering a new style variant since the original launch back in May. It also features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, while still supporting microSD expandable storage up to an additional 2TB.

Product Highlights

Includes a 4.5-inch touch display featuring impact and scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 4 offering the best in resilience and durability.

Reimagined communication experience thanks to an innovative Smart Keyboard that allows you to set up to 52 customizable shortcuts and transform each letter key for quick access to your favorite apps and most important contacts. Includes the world’s first keyboard-embedded fingerprint sensor conveniently located in the spacebar and provides added device security and convenience.

Distinct BlackBerry smartphone powered by Android, with the familiarity and functionality of Android 7.1 Nougat giving users access to the entire Google Play store.

Battery life offering up to 26+ hours of mixed use, and QualcommQuick Charge 3.0 technology enables up to 50 percent charge in roughly 36 minutes.

Pre-loaded with DTEK by BlackBerry, offering constant security monitoring and protection of your operating system and apps by letting you know when your privacy could be at risk and how you can take action to improve it. The BlackBerry KEYone will also receive regular monthly Android security updates.

Features a 12MP rear camera with an industry leading camera sensor (Sony IMX378) that captures sharp, crisp photos in any light. The wide aperture lens with large 1.55μm pixels and dual-tone flash ensures your photos will have superior color and clarity.

At the core of this new BlackBerry smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform with the Qualcomm Adreno 506 GPU. This means BlackBerry KEYone users will enjoy a powerful combination of optimized battery efficiency and usage, plus fast LTE speeds for super-fast file sharing.

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Kevin Sebastian is a passionate writer who lives and breathes on the internet. He started out as a Reddit lurker and eventually made his way to editorial. His curiosity for the region's burgeoning tech scene lead him to editorial positions in various tech publications managing content in technology and gaming. While Kevin is not writing or ranting about the gaming or tech industry, you can find him in far off deserts trying to practice his astrophotography, or in the city making documentaries. More »